10 Biggest Things WWE Stole From WCW
Aren't geniuses supposed to come up with their own ideas?
The Monday Night Wars have gone down as one of the most famous stories in all of professional wrestling... and no one even had to write it. Instead of a booked angle, wrestling fans of the late '90s watched this feud between the WWF and WCW transpire on a weekly basis.
Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff both did awful things in an attempt to get ahead of each other. While Bischoff was well known for holding young talent down in favor of the veterans, McMahon was perhaps even more well known for copying the best WCW had to offer.
Vince is often cited as a business genius, and while that may be true, it wasn't always because WWF had the brightest ideas. Sometimes they just knew how to use their opponent's product to their advantage.
While it was a cheap tactic, it's pretty undeniable that Vince proved himself to be the better promoter during this time. Stealing your ideas may not be the respectable way to win a war, but when you can see exactly what's working and what's failing on your opponent's side, why not take advantage?
10. The Cruiserweight Division
One of WCW's greatest assets was their fantastic cruiserweight division during the mid-'90s.
Between guys like Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio Jr., Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and countless others, the division presented some of the most action-packed high-intensity wrestling that any promotion had to offer... but that didn't stop the competition from trying it out.
Initially starting out as Vince's own Light Heavyweight division, the talent was there but they suffered the same weak booking that plagued WCW's cruiserweights to a lesser extent. Once the Monday Night Wars had ended, Vince McMahon took over control of the newly-named WWF Cruiserweight Championship and replaced it with his own Light Heavyweight Championship.
WWF's cruiserweight division would never gain much traction - through a complete lack of effort - and eventually petered out after an overdosage of Hornswoggle. The true successor to WCW's original glory, however, finally came in 2016 when The Cruiserweight Classic was announced, and the subsequent cruiserweight division was reformed.
Vince took one WCW idea and somehow managed to steal it in three different ways... he really may be a genius.